In vehicles equipped with automatic transmissions, a shift selector translates commands issued by the vehicle operator into control instructions, and transmits the control instructions to the transmission. Conventional shift selectors provide a shift lever and a number of discrete shift positions, with each shift position corresponding to an available transmission range. The available ranges may include directional ranges as well as a number of different forward ranges. Directional ranges may include reverse, neutral and forward (or “drive”). The number of available ranges generally corresponds to the number of speeds or gears provided by the transmission.
In place of discrete shift positions for each range, bump-shift selectors provide a “bump zone” in which a slight displacement of the shift lever results in an up-shift or downshift from the current gear to the next highest or lowest gear. In order to prevent unintended shifting from a directional range into the bump zone, or vice versa, conventional shift selectors employ a tilting shift lever, or provide a different shift axis for directional shifts and bump-shifts. Tilting shift levers require the operator to tilt the lever to one side to access the bump-shift zone.